How Meth Can Ruin Your Life

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Did you know that Crystal Meth, or Meth, can harm your life forever? It isn’t just about how you feel the next day, it can seriously ruin your health, and your life, forever. How? Using this drug gives you serious health condition such as memory loss, psychotic behavior and potential heart and brain damage. Specifically, it can damage your blood vessels from your heart and brain, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes or even death. Meth can cause depression and it can really damage the brain leaving a person to suffer symptoms similar to alzheimer’s disease — loss of memory, constant confusion, hallucinations and paranoia. Meth is a man made drug, it is not found anywhere in the natural world. It is manufactured using household ingredients such as drain cleaners, battery acid, gun cleaners, gasoline additives, muriatic acid, ammonia, lye, acetone and kitty litter. Yes, that’s right, kitty litter. You wouldn’t smoke the stuff your cat shits on, would you? Yet, that is exactly what Meth users do. It has many nicknames – Meth, crank, chalk or speed being the most common. Some people start trying this drug to lose weight, others to stay awake and get stuff done, and still others just to get high and party hard. The problem is, it is one of the most addictive drugs out there and once it hooks you, you are in trouble and will end up with health issues such as severe weight loss and loss of teeth at best, and total psychosis and paranoia at worst.

Crystal Meth comes in clear chunky crystals resembling ice and is most commonly smoked, but it can also be snorted or injected. What makes Meth so dangerous is how addictive it is and how it makes your body get addicted to it. Meth messes with dopamine levels — and dopamine is the hormone your body makes that makes you feel good. Your body releases dopamine while working out, during sex, whenever you have “earned” the right to “feel good.” Meth acts like dopamine, so when you take it, you get that “feel good rush.” The problem is, Meth also destroys your own body’s ability to make dopamine. As addicts use Meth longer, they get used to this drug and they must take more and more of it In order to achieve the desired “rush” from the drug. Some people say your first time taking Methamphetamine you get addicted instantly. What makes Meth so dangerous is after using it for a while, when you are not on it, because it has destroyed your body’s ability to make dopamine, you can’t ever feel good without being on Meth. The withdrawal symptoms are bad — shakes, sickness and cold sweats.

So, you do more Meth to feel good, and it takes more of it to even stop feeling sick from withdrawals, let alone “feel good” and get high. So, Meth addicts don’t really get to enjoy their life. For some Meth users, if they haven’t been using for too long, their body can work its way back up to normal (create its own dopamine) if they can quit using. If you can’t quit using, or use for too long, Meth can suck your life away and you can never go back to how you were.

Most Low intensity Meth abusers — weekenders who don’t use it every day or low dosage, once-a-day users — usually swallow or snort it.They want the extra stimulation Methamphetamine provides so they can stay awake long enough to finish a task or a job, or they want the appetite-suppressant effect to lose weight. Binge Intensity Meth abusers — every day users who use frequently during the day, or those who use only on weekends, but use a lot in just one night — usually smoke or inject with a needle. This allows them to receive a more intense dose that makes them high quickly and also gets rid of withdrawal symptoms fast. High intensity Meth abusers are called speed freaks.

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People that are addicted to Meth are in danger because your heart rate can increase and dilation of pupils can increase as well. Unable to sleep is another thing Meth can do to you. If you can’t sleep, you end up with severe health issues. Bad nausea can happen and Meth also makes people have a violent behavior attitude. Hallucinations and panics can happen along with seizures from high doses. This is just the short term effects that Meth can do your body. Short term effects are still highly bad because you can die from these short term effects.

Long Term effects can be very dangerous because it can permanently damage your blood vessels from your heart to your brain. Smoking Meth or just using it in general can damage your kidney and liver. Severe breathing problems and loss of weight can occur. People often take this drug to lose weight. Depression is the most common thing that happens from using this drug. It is also easy to see the physical effects of long term meth use — really bad skin or “track marks,” a lot of weight loss making you look almost dead, horrible teeth are just a few easy signs to spot that somebody has been using long term

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I know a couple of retired Meth users that have these short term or long term effects that prevents them from living a normal peaceful life because of depression or even hallucinations of things that are not really there. I live in the small town of Ukiah, California, which is full of homeless people that are living bad because they use Methamphetamine or have done Methamphetamine and have the short or long term effects, like psychotic behavior and lack of thinking straight. Some of them had “normal” good lives until they started using, but now they will be homeless until they die. Meth ruined their life forever. Be warned, Meth doesn’t play favorites — it doesn’t affect just one race or only the rich or poor. If you start using, it can suck you in, make you an addict, and ruin your life forever.

3 Comments

3 Responses to “How Meth Can Ruin Your Life”

Christopher Pittenger on
May 4th, 2017 12:01 pm

I liked how well detail this was and I learned more about meth than i never even knew about. I enjoyed this a lot because it teaches us how meth can ruin your life forever. What i didn’t like about this is repetitive wording. I liked how in the end it grabbed my attention ” it doesn’t affect just one race or only the rich or poor. If you start using, it can suck you in, make you an addict, and ruin your life forever.” makes you really think over this drug a lot and that it can affect anyone.

What I liked about the writing in this article was the vocabulary wasn’t very wide and he didn’t throw really big words at us he made sure he could make it to where everyone could understand this article. I didn’t learn anything from this article. But i did like how he was trying to educate people on how the drug can ruin your life and how it doesn’t only hurt you but your love ones as well.